Giant caterpillar-turned-avenging-insect Mothra wreaks havoc on Japan when its best friends - two tiny, telepathic, singing sisters (played by real-life siblings Yumi and Emi Ito) - are kidnapped by an unscrupulous promoter and forced to perform in a Tokyo nightclub.

With the space race in full swing, Ishirô Honda and SFX artist Eiji Tsuburaya collaborated on this action-packed, alien-invasion extravaganza. Envisioning Japan as an aerospace leader and reflecting its postwar return to world affairs (the country had recently joined the United Nations), the film shows Tokyo leading an international coalition of America, the Soviet Union and other nations against hostile spacemen from the planet Natal. These pint-sized invaders pack a powerful arsenal that includes nimble flying saucers and a giant mothership with an anti-gravity beam that sucks skyscrapers off the ground! Heroic astronaut Katsumiya (Ryo Ikebe) and his crew are ready for battle - on the moon, and in the skies over Tokyo.